Myanmar minority resist Cyclone Mahasen evacuation

SITTWE, Myanmar (AP) — The cyclone was only a day or two away, churning through the Indian Ocean and carrying with it winds and rains that authorities warned could quickly turn deadly.

But in dozens of refugee camps that spatter Myanmar's western coast, where tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya people live in plastic-roofed tents and huts made of reeds, an order to evacuate ahead of the storm was met with widespread refusal.

In these camps, filled with people who barely exist officially, nearly any government order is distrusted.

Around 140,000 people — mostly Rohingya — have been living in crowded camps in Myanmar's Rakhine state since last year, when two outbreaks of sectarian violence between the Muslim minority and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists forced many Rohingya from their homes.

Nearly half the displaced live in coastal areas considered highly vulnerable to storm surges and flooding from Cyclone Mahasen, which is expected to make landfall early Friday.

"They say they'll take us someplace safe," said Kyaung Wa, a cycle-rickshaw driver who has spent nearly a year in a series of camps on the outskirts of Sittwe after his house was destroyed in the violence. If his current home is little more than a hut covered with a plastic sheet, he fears ending up someplace even worse, and living deeper in the countryside and away from work.

So he and the vast majority of his neighbors insisted they would stay, along with thousands of other Rohingya along the coastline.

Officials, he said, had been trying to empty his camp for months.

"Now they say, 'You have to move because of the storm,'" he said. "We keep refusing to go. ... If they point guns at us, only then will we move."

President's Office Minister Aung Min told reporters Wednesday that the government guarantees the safety of the Rohingyas during relocation and promises to return them to their current settlement when the storm has passed.

Mahasen appeared to have weakened Wednesday, with the cyclone downgraded to a Category 1 storm, according to the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

However, the center of the cyclone was heading toward Chittagong in Bangladesh and could, "depending on its final trajectory, bring life-threatening conditions for 8.2 million people in northeast India, Bangladesh and Myanmar," the U.N. office said in a Wednesday storm update.

There was no wind or rain in Chittagong on Wednesday afternoon, but about 170 factories close to the Bay of Bengal were closed in anticipation of the storm.

Cox's Bazar, a seafront town in Bangladesh in the expected path of the cyclone, experienced drizzling rain and high tides 3 to 4 feet (about one meter) above normal. There was flooding in low-lying areas of several nearby island towns, said Ruhul Amin, a government official, and tens of thousands of people had left their homes for cyclone shelters and schools and government buildings on high ground.

Related heavy rains and flooding in Sri Lanka were blamed for eight deaths earlier this week, said Sarath Lal Kumara, spokesman for Sri Lanka's disaster management center.

In Myanmar at least eight people — and possibly many more — were killed as they fled the cyclone Monday night, when overcrowded boats carrying more than 100 Rohingya capsized. Only 42 people had been rescued by Wednesday, and more than 50 Rohingya were still missing, said Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut.

Much attention was focused on western Myanmar because of fears over the fate of the crowded, low-lying Rohingya camps.

Myanmar's government had planned to move 38,000 people within Rakhine state by Tuesday but "it is unclear how many people have been relocated," the U.N. office said, adding that Muslim leaders in the country have called on people to cooperate with the government's evacuation.

With sprawling camps still crowded with people, it appeared very few Rohingya had agreed to leave, despite offers of additional food rations.

The ones that had left said they had little choice.

"They just put us on the truck and brought us here," said Mahmoud Issac, a day laborer now living with his family and about 500 other Rohingya on the grounds of a small mosque. His wife and five children live on the ground floor of a two-room school, while he and the other men sleep on the mosque's portico.

He has no idea if he'll be allowed to return to the camp that had become his home.

The Rohingya trace their ancestry to what is now Bangladesh, but many have lived in Myanmar for generations. Officially, though, they are dismissed as illegal aliens. They face widespread discrimination in largely Buddhist Myanmar, and particularly in Rakhine, where many of the Rohingya live.

Tensions remain high in Rakhine nearly a year after sectarian unrest tore through the region and left parts of Sittwe, the state capital, burned to the ground. At least 192 people were killed.

The violence has largely segregated Rakhine state along religious lines, with prominent Buddhists — including monks — urging people not to employ their Muslim onetime neighbors, or to shop in their businesses.

International rights groups and aid agencies urged that the evacuations be stepped up.

The British-based aid agency Oxfam welcomed the government's evacuation efforts, but said "swifter action is needed to ensure people are moved before the storm hits."

"It is essential that humanitarian principles are adhered to in moving all affected populations safely to suitable locations and that no one is left out," the group's director for Myanmar, Jane Lonsdale, said in a statement.

Weather experts have warned that the storm could shift and change in intensity before hitting land.

Myanmar's southern delta was devastated in 2008 by Cyclone Nargis, which swept away entire farming villages and killed more than 130,000 people. Two days before hitting Myanmar, Nargis weakened to a Category 1 cyclone before strengthening to a Category 4 storm.

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Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok, Farid Hossain in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, and Krishan Francis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, contributed to this report.

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Indonesia says 2 arrested for Myanmar Embassy plot

May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...

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Buddhists-Muslims violence spreads in Myanmar

MEIKHTILA, Myanmar (AP) — Sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar spread to at least two other towns in the country's heartland over the weekend, undermining government efforts to quash an eruption of violence that has killed dozens of people and displaced 10,000 more.

President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in the region on Friday and deployed army troops to the worst hit city, Meikhtila. But even as soldiers were able to impose order there after several days of anarchy that saw armed Buddhists torch the city's Muslim quarters, unrest was reported in two other towns to the south.

Late Sunday, state television said that mobs burned down a mosque and 50 homes on Saturday in Yamethin, about 64 kilometers (40 miles) from Meikhtila, and another mosque and several buildings were also set ablaze in Lewei, further south near the capital, Naypyitaw.

The government has put the total death toll at 32, and authorities say they have detained at least 35 people allegedly involved in arson and violence in the region.

The spread of violence is posing major challenged to stability as Thein Sein's administration, led by retired military officers, struggles to reform the Southeast Asian country after half a century of army rule officially ended two years ago.

Two similar episodes rocked western Rakhine state last year, pitting ethnic Rakhine Buddhists against Rohingya Muslims who are widely denigrated as illegal migrants from Bangladesh and are denied passports as a result. The Muslim population of central Myanmar, by contrast, is mostly of Indian origin and does not face the same questions over nationality.

Analysts say the emergence of sectarian conflict here is a worrying development, one that indicates violent anti-Muslim sentiment has spread unabated into the country's heartland. Muslims make up about four percent of the predominantly Buddhist country's roughly 60 million people.

The bloodshed "shows that inter-communal tensions in Myanmar are not just limited to the Rakhine and Rohingya in northern Rakhine state," said Jim Della-Giacoma of the International Crisis Group. "Myanmar is a country with dozens of localized fault lines and grievances that were papered over during the authoritarian years that we are just beginning to see and understand. It is a paradox of transitions that greater freedom does allows these local conflicts to resurface."

"If a democratic state is the nation's goal, they need to find a place for all its people as equal citizens," Della-Giacoma said. "Given the country's history, it won't be easy."

On Sunday, Vijay Nambiar, the U.N. secretary-general's special adviser on Myanmar, toured Meikhtila and called on the government to punish those responsible.

He also visited some of the nearly 10,000 people driven from their homes in the unrest. Most of the displaced are minority Muslims, who appeared to have suffered the brunt of the violence as armed Buddhist mobs roamed city.

Nambiar said he was encouraged to learn that some individuals in both communities had bravely helped each other and that religious leaders were now advocating peace. He said the people he spoke to believe the violence "was the work of outsiders," but he gave no details.

"There is a certain degree of fear and anxiety among the people, but there is no hatred," Nambiar said after visiting both groups on Sunday and promising the United Nations would provide as much help as it can to get the city back on its feet. "They feel a sense of community and that it is a very good thing because they have worked together and lived together."

But he added: "It is important to catch the perpetrators. It is important that they be caught and punished."

In Meikthila, at least five mosques were set ablaze from Wednesday to Friday. The majority of homes and shops burned in the city also belonged to Muslims, and most of the displaced are Muslim. Dozens of corpses were piled in the streets, some of them charred beyond recognition.

During his trip, Nambiar visited some of the thousands of Muslim residents at a city stadium, where they have huddled since fleeing their homes. He later visited around 100 Buddhists at a local monastery who have also been displaced.

"The city is calm and some shops have reopened, but many still live in fear. Some still dare not return to their homes," said Win Htein, an opposition lawmaker from the city.

Myanma Ahlin, a state-run newspaper, carried a statement from Buddhist, Muslim, Christian and Hindu leaders expressing sorrow for the loss of life and property and calling on Buddhist monks to help ease tensions.

"We would like to call upon the government to provide sufficient security and to protect the displaced people and to investigate and take legal measures as urgently as possible," the statement from the Interfaith Friendship Organization said.

Muslims, who make up about 30 percent of Meikhtila's 100,000 inhabitants, have stayed off the streets since their shops and homes were burned and Buddhist mobs armed with machetes and swords began roaming the city.

Little appeared to be left of some palm tree-lined neighborhoods, where the legs of victims could be seen poking out from smoldering masses of twisted debris and ash. Broken glass, charred cars and motorcycles and overturned tables littered roads beside rows of burned-out homes and shops, evidence of the widespread chaos that swept the town.

Chaos began Wednesday after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers. Once news spread that a Muslim man had killed a Buddhist monk, Buddhist mobs rampaged through a Muslim neighborhood and the situation quickly spiraled out of control.

Residents and activists said the police did little to stop the rioters or reacted too slowly, allowing the violence to escalate.

Occasional isolated violence involving Myanmar's majority Buddhist and minority Muslim communities has occurred for decades, even under the authoritarian military governments that ruled the country from 1962 to 2011.

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Buddhist-Muslim violence spreads in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Anti-Muslim mobs rampaged through three more towns in Myanmar's predominantly Buddhist heartland over the weekend, destroying mosques and burning dozens of homes despite government efforts to stop the nation's latest outbreak of sectarian violence from spreading.

President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in central Myanmar on Friday and deployed army troops to the worst hit city, Meikhtila, where 32 people were killed and 10,000 mostly Muslim residents were displaced. But even as soldiers imposed order there after several days of anarchy that saw armed Buddhists torch the city's Muslim quarters, anti-Muslim unrest has spread south toward the capital, Naypyitaw.

A Muslim resident of Tatkone, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Meikhtila, said by telephone that a group of about 20 men ransacked a one-story brick mosque there late Sunday night, pelting it with stones and smashing windows before soldiers fired shots to drive them away. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, he said he believed the perpetrators were not from Tatkone.

A day earlier, another mob burned down a mosque and 50 homes in the nearby town of Yamethin, state television reported. Another mosque and several buildings were also destroyed the same day in Lewei, farther south. It was not immediately clear who was behind the violence, and no clashes or casualties were reported in the three towns.

The upsurge in sectarian unrest is casting a shadow over Thein Sein's administration as it struggles to bring democratic reform the Southeast Asian country after half a century of army rule officially ended two years ago this month.

Two similar episodes rocked western Rakhine state last year, pitting ethnic Rakhine Buddhists against Rohingya Muslims in bloodshed that killed hundreds and drove 100,000 from their homes.

The Rohingya are widely denigrated as illegal migrants from Bangladesh and most are denied passports as a result. The Muslim population of central Myanmar, by contrast, is mostly of Indian origin and does not face the same questions over nationality.

The emergence of sectarian conflict beyond Rakhine state is an ominous development, one that indicates anti-Muslim sentiment has intensified nationwide since last year and, if left unchecked, could spread.

Sectarian and ethnic tensions are not new in Myanmar.

Muslims account for about four percent of the nation's roughly 60 million people, and during the long era of authoritarian rule, military governments twice drove out hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, while smaller clashes had occurred elsewhere. About one third of the population is comprised of ethnic minorities that practice Christianity or animism, and most have waged wars against the government for autonomy.

Analysts say racism has also played a role. Unlike the ethnic Burman majority, most Muslims in Myanmar are of South Asian descent, populations with darker skin that migrated to Myanmar centuries ago from what are now parts of India and Bangladesh.

The latest bloodshed "shows that inter-communal tensions in Myanmar are not just limited to the Rakhine and Rohingya in northern Rakhine state," said Jim Della-Giacoma of the International Crisis Group. "Myanmar is a country with dozens of localized fault lines and grievances that were papered over during the authoritarian years that we are just beginning to see and understand. It is a paradox of transitions that greater freedom does allow these local conflicts to resurface."

"If a democratic state is the nation's goal, they need to find a place for all its people as equal citizens," Della-Giacoma said. "Given the country's history, it won't be easy."

The government has put the total death toll in Meikhtila at 32, and authorities say they have detained at least 35 people allegedly involved in arson and violence in the region.

On Sunday, Vijay Nambiar, the U.N. secretary-general's special adviser on Myanmar, toured Meikhtila and called on the government to punish those responsible.

He also visited some of the nearly 10,000 people driven from their homes in the unrest. Most of the displaced are minority Muslims, who appeared to have suffered the brunt of the violence as armed Buddhist mobs roamed city.

Nambiar said he was encouraged to learn that some individuals in both communities had helped each other and that religious leaders were now advocating peace. He said the people he spoke to believe the violence "was the work of outsiders," but he gave no details.

"There is a certain degree of fear and anxiety among the people, but there is no hatred," Nambiar said after visiting both groups on Sunday and promising the United Nations would provide as much help as it can to get the city back on its feet. "They feel a sense of community and that it is a very good thing because they have worked together and lived together."

But he added: "It is important to catch the perpetrators. It is important that they be caught and punished."

In Meikthila, at least five mosques were set ablaze from Wednesday to Friday. The majority of homes and shops burned in the city also belonged to Muslims, and most of the displaced are Muslim. Dozens of corpses were piled in the streets, some of them charred beyond recognition.

"The city is calm and some shops have reopened, but many still live in fear. Some still dare not return to their homes," said Win Htein, an opposition lawmaker from the city.

Myanma Ahlin, a state-run newspaper, carried a statement from Buddhist, Muslim, Christian and Hindu leaders expressing sorrow for the loss of life and property and calling on Buddhist monks to help ease tensions.

"We would like to call upon the government to provide sufficient security and to protect the displaced people and to investigate and take legal measures as urgently as possible," the statement from the Interfaith Friendship Organization said.

Muslims, who make up about 30 percent of Meikhtila's 100,000 inhabitants, have stayed off the streets since their shops and homes were burned and Buddhist mobs armed with machetes and swords began roaming the city.

Little appeared to be left of some palm tree-lined neighborhoods, where the legs of victims could be seen poking out from smoldering masses of twisted debris and ash. Broken glass, charred cars and motorcycles and overturned tables littered roads beside rows of burned-out homes and shops, evidence of the widespread chaos that swept the town.

Chaos began Wednesday after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers. Once news spread that a Muslim man had killed a Buddhist monk, Buddhist mobs rampaged through a Muslim neighborhood and the situation quickly spiraled out of control.

Residents and activists said the police did little to stop the rioters or reacted too slowly, allowing the violence to escalate.

___

Associated Press writers Todd Pitman and Grant Peck contributed to this report from Bangkok.

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UN Myanmar envoy visits ruined city after violence

MEIKHTILA, Myanmar (AP) — The United Nations' top envoy to Myanmar on Sunday toured a central city that was destroyed in the country's worst explosion of Buddhist-Muslim violence this year, visiting some of the nearly 10,000 people forced from their homes after unrest left dozens of corpses in the streets, some of them charred beyond recognition.

The visit to Meikhtila of Vijay Nambiar, the U.N. secretary-general's special adviser on Myanmar, came one day after the army took control of the city to enforce a tense calm after President Thein Sein ordered a state of emergency here.

The bloodshed marked the first sectarian unrest to spread into the nation's heartland since two similar episodes rocked western Rakhine state last year. It is the latest challenge to efforts to reform the Southeast Asian country after the long-ruling military ceded power two years ago to a civilian government led by retired army officers.

There are concerns the violence could spread, and the bloodshed has raised questions about the government's failure to rein in anti-Muslim sentiment in a predominantly Buddhist country where even monks have armed themselves and taken advantage of newfound freedoms to stage anti-Muslim rallies.

As in Rakhine, minority Muslims again appeared to have borne the brunt of the violence. At least five mosques were set ablaze in Meikhtila, the majority of homes and shops burned in the city belonged to Muslims, and most of the displaced were Muslim.

During his trip, Nambiar visited some of the thousands of Muslim residents at a city stadium where they have huddled since fleeing their homes. He later visited around 100 Buddhists at a local monastery who have also been displaced.

No new violence was reported overnight, but residents remain fearful.

"The city is calm and some shops have reopened, but many still live in fear. Some still dare not return to their homes," said Win Htein, an opposition lawmaker from the town.

Late Saturday, the government put the death toll at 32, according to state television, which reported that bodies had been found as authorities began cleaning up the area.

Muslims, who make up about 30 percent of Meikhtila's 100,000 inhabitants, have stayed off the streets since their shops and homes were burned and Buddhist mobs armed with machetes and swords began roaming the city.

Residents complained that police had stood by and done little to stop the mayhem. But "calm has been restored since troops took charge of security," said Win Htein.

Little appeared to be left of some palm tree-lined neighborhoods, where the legs of victims could be seen poking out from smoldering masses of twisted debris and ash. Broken glass, charred cars and motorcycles and overturned tables littered roads beside rows of burned-out homes and shops, evidence of the widespread chaos that swept the town.

Local businessman San Hlaing said he counted 28 bodies this week, all men, piled in groups around the town.

The struggle to contain the violence has proven another major challenge to Thein Sein's reformist administration, which has faced an upsurge in fighting with ethnic Kachin rebels in the north and major protests at a northern copper mine where angry residents — emboldened by promises of freedom of expression — have come out to denounce land grabbing.

The devastation was reminiscent of last year's clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya that left hundreds of people dead and more than 100,000 displaced — almost all of them Muslim. The Rohingya are widely perceived as illegal migrants and foreigners from Bangladesh; the Muslim population of Meikhtila is believed to be mostly of Indian origin.

This week's chaos began Wednesday after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers. Once news spread that a Muslim man had killed a Buddhist monk, Buddhist mobs rampaged through a Muslim neighborhood and the situation quickly spiraled out of control.

Residents and activists said the police did little to stop the rioters or reacted too slowly, allowing the violence to escalate. "They were like scarecrows in a paddy field," San Hlaing said.

Khin Maung Swe, a 72-year-old Muslim lawyer who said he lost all his savings, complained that authorities did nothing to disperse the mobs.

"If the military and police had showed up in force, those troublemakers would have run away," he said, inspecting the remains of his damaged home.

San Htwe, a 39-year-old housewife, said she could see police and soldiers "everywhere" in Meikhtila on Saturday but did not feel at ease. "I'm afraid that the situation will be like in Rakhine" — where sectarian tensions have split an entire state and Buddhist and Muslim communities live in near-total segregation, constantly fearing more violence.

Occasional isolated violence involving Myanmar's majority Buddhist and minority Muslim communities has occurred for decades, even under the authoritarian military governments that ruled the country from 1962 to 2011.

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UN's Myanmar envoy visits city wracked by violence

MEIKHTILA, Myanmar (AP) — The top U.N. envoy to Myanmar on Sunday toured a central city wracked by the country's worst Buddhist-Muslim violence this year, calling on the government to punish those responsible for a tragedy that left dozens of corpses piled in the streets, some of them charred beyond recognition.

Vijay Nambiar, the U.N. secretary-general's special adviser on Myanmar, also visited some of the nearly 10,000 people driven from their homes after sectarian unrest shook the city of Meikhtila for several days this week. Most of the displaced are minority Muslims, who appeared to have suffered the brunt of the violence as armed Buddhist mobs roamed city.

Nambiar said he was encouraged to learn that some individuals in both communities had bravely helped each other and that religious leaders were now advocating peace. He said the people he spoke to believe the violence "was the work of outsiders," but he gave no details.

"There is a certain degree of fear and anxiety among the people, but there is no hatred," Nambiar said after visiting both groups on Sunday and promising the United Nations would provide as much help as it can to get the city back on its feet. "They feel a sense of community and that it is a very good thing because they have worked together and lived together."

But he added: "It is important to catch the perpetrators. It is important that they be caught and punished."

Nambiar's visit came one day after the army took control of the city to enforce a tense calm after President Thein Sein ordered a state of emergency here.

The government has put the official death toll at 32, and late Sunday state television reported that authorities had detained 35 people allegedly involved in arson and violence in Meikhtila and the townships of Yamethin and Lewei, which are about 64 kilometers (40 miles) and 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Meikhtila, respectively.

The report said that a group of people burned down a mosque and several buildings early Saturday in Lewei, and that a mosque and 50 homes were also burned in Yamethin the same day.

The bloodshed marked the first sectarian unrest to spread into Myanmar's heartland since two similar episodes rocked western Rakhine state last year. It is the latest challenge to efforts to reform the Southeast Asian country after the long-ruling military ceded power two years ago to a civilian government led by retired army officers.

There are concerns the violence could spread, and the bloodshed has raised questions about the government's failure to rein in anti-Muslim sentiment in a predominantly Buddhist country where even monks have armed themselves and taken advantage of newfound freedoms to stage anti-Muslim rallies.

In Meikthila, at least five mosques were set ablaze from Wednesday to Friday. The majority of homes and shops burned in the city also belonged to Muslims, and most of the displaced are Muslim.

During his trip, Nambiar visited some of the thousands of Muslim residents at a city stadium, where they have huddled since fleeing their homes. He later visited around 100 Buddhists at a local monastery who have also been displaced.

No new violence was reported overnight in Meikhtila, but residents remained anxious.

"The city is calm and some shops have reopened, but many still live in fear. Some still dare not return to their homes," said Win Htein, an opposition lawmaker from the city.

Myanma Ahlin, a state-run newspaper, carried a statement from Buddhist, Muslim, Christian and Hindu leaders expressing sorrow for the loss of life and property and calling on Buddhist monks to help ease tensions.

"We would like to call upon the government to provide sufficient security and to protect the displaced people and to investigate and take legal measures as urgently as possible," the statement from the Interfaith Friendship Organization said.

Muslims, who make up about 30 percent of Meikhtila's 100,000 inhabitants, have stayed off the streets since their shops and homes were burned and Buddhist mobs armed with machetes and swords began roaming the city.

Little appeared to be left of some palm tree-lined neighborhoods, where the legs of victims could be seen poking out from smoldering masses of twisted debris and ash. Broken glass, charred cars and motorcycles and overturned tables littered roads beside rows of burned-out homes and shops, evidence of the widespread chaos that swept the town.

The struggle to contain the violence has proven another major challenge to Thein Sein's reformist administration, which has faced an upsurge in fighting with ethnic Kachin rebels in the north and major protests at a northern copper mine where angry residents — emboldened by promises of freedom of expression — have come out to denounce land grabbing.

The devastation was reminiscent of last year's clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya that left hundreds of people dead and more than 100,000 displaced — almost all of them Muslim. The Rohingya are widely perceived as illegal migrants and foreigners from Bangladesh; the Muslim population of Meikhtila is believed to be mostly of Indian origin.

Chaos began Wednesday after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers. Once news spread that a Muslim man had killed a Buddhist monk, Buddhist mobs rampaged through a Muslim neighborhood and the situation quickly spiraled out of control.

Residents and activists said the police did little to stop the rioters or reacted too slowly, allowing the violence to escalate.

Occasional isolated violence involving Myanmar's majority Buddhist and minority Muslim communities has occurred for decades, even under the authoritarian military governments that ruled the country from 1962 to 2011.

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Sectarian violence kills at least 20 in Myanmar

MEIKHTILA, Myanmar (AP) — The death toll from a vicious explosion of sectarian bloodshed in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar rose to at least 20 on Friday, as the president declared a state of emergency, thousands of minority Muslims fled, and overwhelmed riot police crisscrossed the ruined streets of a still-burning city seizing machetes and hammers from angry mobs.

Black smoke and flames poured from destroyed buildings in the central city of Meikhtila, where the unrest between local Buddhist and Muslim residents erupted Wednesday in the latest challenge to Myanmar's ever-precarious transition to democratic rule.

Little appeared to be left of some palm tree-lined neighborhoods, where whole plots were reduced to smoldering masses of twisted debris. Broken glass, destroyed motorcycles and overturned tables littered roads beside rows of burnt-out homes and shops.

The devastation in Meikhtila, where at least five mosques have been torched by angry mobs, was reminiscent of strikingly similar scenes last year in western Myanmar, where sectarian violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya left hundreds of people dead and more than 100,000 displaced.

Human rights groups had long feared that that unrest could spread to other parts of Myanmar, and the clashes in Meikhtila are the first reported in central Myanmar since then.

The government's struggle to contain the violence is proving another major challenge for President Thein Sein's reformist administration as it attempts to chart a path to democracy after nearly half a century of military rule that once crushed all dissent.

Thein Sein took office two years ago this month, and despite ushering in an era of reform, he has faced not only violence in Rakhine state, but an upsurge in fighting with ethnic Kachin rebels in the north and major protests at a northern copper mine where angry residents — emboldened by promises of freedom of expression — have come out to denounce land grabbing.

The troubles in Meikhtila began Wednesday after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers. A Buddhist monk was among the first killed, inflaming tensions that led a Buddhist mob to rampage through a Muslim neighborhood.

Violence continued Thursday, and by Friday, Win Htein, a local lawmaker from the opposition National League for Democracy, said he had counted at least 20 bodies. He said 1,200 Muslim families — at least 6,000 people — have fled their homes and taken refuge at a stadium and a police station.

Fires set to Muslim homes continued to burn, and angry Buddhist residents and monks prevented authorities from putting out the blazes. Police could be seen seizing knives, swords, hammers and sticks from young men in the streets and detaining scores of looters.

There were indications, too, that the violence spread Friday to at least one village on the outskirts of Meikhtila, about 550 kilometers (340 miles) north of the main city of Yangon.

Local activist Myint Myint Aye said fires were burning in the nearby village of Chan Aye, where shops were looted but calm was restored later in the day.

In an acknowledgement of the seriousness of the situation, Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in Meikhtila in an announcement broadcast on state television. The declaration allows the military to take over administrative functions in and around the town.

He also declared a state of emergency in three nearby townships, but there were no reports of violence there.

In Meikhtila, monks accosted and threatened journalists trying to cover the unrest, at one point trying to drag a group of several out of a van. One monk, whose faced was covered, shoved a foot-long dagger at the neck of an Associated Press photographer and demanded his camera. The photographer defused the situation by handing over his camera's memory card.

The group of nine journalists took refuge in a monastery and stayed there until a police unit was able to escort them to safety.

Many people cowered indoors.

"We don't feel safe and we have now moved inside a monastery," said Sein Shwe, a shop owner. "The situation is unpredictable and dangerous."

The U.N. secretary-general's special adviser to Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, issued a statement expressing "deep sorrow at the tragic loss of lives and destruction."

He said religious and community leaders must "publicly call on their followers to abjure violence, respect the law and promote peace."

The U.S. ambassador to Myanmar, Derek Mitchell, also said he was "deeply concerned about reports of violence and widespread property damage in Meikhtila."

Meikhtila has a population of about 100,000 people, of which about a third are Muslims, Win Htein said. He said before this week's violence there were 17 mosques.

Occasional isolated violence involving Myanmar's majority Buddhist and minority Muslim communities has occurred for decades.

Under the military governments that ruled Myanmar from 1962 until 2011, ethnic and religious unrest was typically hushed up, an approach made easier in pre-Internet days, when there was a state monopoly on daily newspapers, radio and television, backed by tough censorship of other media.

But since an elected, though still military-backed, government took power in 2011, people have been using the Internet and social media in increasing numbers, and the press has been unshackled, with censorship mostly dropped and privately owned daily newspapers expected to hit the streets in the next few months.

The government of Thein Sein is constrained from using open force to quell unrest because it needs foreign approval in order to woo aid and investment. The previous military junta had no such compunctions about using force, and was ostracized by the international community for its human rights abuses.

There was no apparent direct connection between the Meikhtila violence and that last year in Rakhine state. Rakhine Buddhists allege that Rohingya are mostly illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. The Muslim population of Meikhtila is believed to be mostly of Indian origin, and although religious tensions are longstanding, the incident sparking the violence seemed to be a small and isolated dispute.

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State of emergency declared in Myanmar town

MEIKHTILA, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar President Thein Sein has declared a state of emergency in a central town where at least 20 people have been killed in violence between Buddhists and Muslims.

The president made the announcement in a statement broadcast on state television on Friday.

The government's struggle to contain the unrest in the town of Meikhtila is proving another major challenge for Thein Sein's reformist administration as it attempts to chart a path to democracy after nearly half a century of military rule that once crushed all dissent.

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Death toll rises to 20 in Myanmar religious riots

MEIKHTILA, Myanmar (AP) — A lawmaker says at least 20 people have died in two days of rioting between Buddhists and Muslims in a central Myanmar town where residents remained locked in their homes, too afraid to walk the streets.

Opposition National League for Democracy lawmaker Win Htein told The Associated Press by telephone Friday that at least five mosques were burned down since the violence started Wednesday in the town of Meikhtila.

He said there was no immediate sign of fresh violence but the situation remained tense.

He said fires continued to burn but angry Buddhist residents and monks prevented authorities from putting out fires set to Muslim homes.

The violence was the latest sectarian unrest after clashes in western Rakhine state last year left more than 200 dead.

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AP Photos: Addiction lurks behind Myanmar conflict

MYITKYINA, Myanmar (AP) — Freshly dumped hypodermic syringes litter alleys, cemeteries and shaded corners in Myitkyina, the provincial capital of Kachin state, on Myanmar's northern border with China.

Myitkyina is known for having one of the highest concentrations of drug addicts in the world. The Kachin Baptist Convention, an evangelical group with more than 300 churches in the state, says nearly 80 percent of ethnic Kachin youth are addicts. Their drug of choice is heroin.

Opium is grown here, and heroin is cheap and easy to find. Help in overcoming addiction, however, is rare.

The men who come to the Kachin Baptist Convention's rehabilitation camp, one of the few places addicts can seek help, hope to find healing in God. They warm their hands around bowls of rice in the morning chill. Then they gather to sing gospel songs, their faces lit with tears as the sun rises. Just 31 of the 49 men who came to the camp — the first the convention has ever set up — managed to finish the three-month program in February.

The government also runs a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kachin state, but some here say officials have done far too little, and even accuse them of turning a blind eye to drug abuse to decimate young people who might otherwise become rebels.

Fighting broke out in 2011 between the Kachin Independence Army, which has long been struggling for greater self-rule, and government forces. It has continued despite the announcement of a ceasefire in January.

"They want to destroy the Kachin youth, especially because there is a revolution going on and they don't want the youth to join it," says Gryung Heang, the pastor of the camp church.

Officials dismiss such views. "This is an extremist separatist idea," says police Col. Myint Thein, who oversees a drug abuse control unit. "It is just a false accusation."

Inside the rough wood and corrugated metal sheds of the rehabilitation camp, it is plain that getting off drugs is a deeply personal process, not a political one.

Shrouded in mist, 30-year-old Nlan Shawang walks into the light. He clenches his fists, his eyes squeezed shut with emotion. "I feel sad and happy," he says. "Sad because I didn't know God for so long. Happy because now I see him."

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Myanmar parliament agrees to review constitution

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's parliament has agreed to set up a commission to review the 2008 pro-military constitution, a process that could eventually change the political landscape and allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to take the presidency.

Lawmakers say the two houses of parliament agreed unanimously Wednesday to look at the charter, which many consider undemocratic, and consider whether to implement changes.

Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy party has long said that the constitution is undemocratic because of provisions that allow the military to control a substantial percentage of parliamentary seats and disqualify Suu Kyi from running for the presidency.

However, lawmakers from the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party say they want to change provisions concerning state governments to allow ethnic minorities increased self-rule.

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Myanmar mine protesters reject official report

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Opponents of a nearly $1 billion copper mine in northwestern Myanmar expressed outrage Tuesday over a government-ordered report that said the project should continue and that refrained from demanding punishment for police involved in a violent crackdown on protesters.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi chaired the investigation commission that produced the report, which was released Monday night. It could pose a problem for Suu Kyi by identifying her with the pro-growth policies of the government against the interests of grassroots people's movements.

President Thein Sein appointed the commission after police cracked down on protesters at the Letpadaung mine Nov. 29, leaving scores hospitalized with serious burns. Most of the people burned were Buddhist monks. Thwe Thwe Win, a protest leader, said Tuesday that demonstrations will resume.

"I am very dissatisfied, and it is unacceptable," she said. "There is no clause that will punish anyone who had ordered the violent crackdown. Action should be taken against the person who gave the order."

Suu Kyi is scheduled to travel to the mine area, in Monywa township, 760 kilometers (450 miles) north of Yangon, to talk with the protesting villagers Wednesday.

Protesters say the mine, a joint venture between China's Wan Bao mining company and a Myanmar military conglomerate, causes environmental, social and health problems and should be shut down.

The report said the operation should not be halted, even as it acknowledged that the mine lacked strong environmental protection measures and would not create more jobs for local people. The report said scrapping the mine could create tension with China and could discourage badly needed foreign investment.

Those seeking to stop the project contend that the $997 million joint venture deal, signed in May 2010, did not undergo parliamentary scrutiny because it was concluded under the previous military regime.

Many in Myanmar remain suspicious of the military and regard China as an aggressive and exploitative investor that helped support its rule.

"The commission should think about the welfare of their own people, poor local villagers, rather than good relations with China," Thwe Thwe said.

Aung Thein, an activist lawyer who works with the protesters, said the assertion that the contract should be honored to maintain good relations was "meaningless."

"Some people are afraid of China, but the people in general are not, and they don't feel any obligation toward China," he said.

The November crackdown was the biggest use of force against protesters in Myanmar since Thein Sein's reformist government took office in March 2011. The military junta that led Myanmar for the previous five decades frequently crushed political dissent.

The use of incendiary devices by the police in the middle of the night to break up the 11-day occupation of mine property had outraged many people, especially because most of the burned were Buddhist monks.

The authorities had said they used water cannon, tear gas and smoke grenades to break up the protest.

A separate, independent report released last month by a Myanmar lawyers network and an international human rights group said police dispersed the protesters by using white phosphorous, an incendiary agent generally used in war to create smokescreens.

The report released Monday acknowledged that smoke bombs containing phosphorous were used. It said the smoke bombs do not generally create a flame but the phosphorus in them can sometimes burn flammable materials within an 8-meter (8-yard) radius.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday the U.S. opposes the use of phosphorus to control crowds, and it has urged the government to ensure that its security forces exercise maximum restraint and protect the freedom of assembly in accordance with international standards.

Asked about how the incident reflects on the country's reforms, Nuland told reporters: "It's not secret that this is a work in progress in Burma." She said the U.S. would continue a "rigorous" dialogue on human rights with Myanmar, including on police conduct.

Senior police told the commission that they used the same smoke bombs during monk-led protests in 2007 — the demonstrations known as the Saffron Revolution — and they didn't cause any burns then. The commission faulted the police force for failing to understand how the smoke bombs worked and recommended that police receive riot-control training.

Aung Thein, who helped prepare the earlier independent report, said that police should have known the bombs could cause fires. "There is no excuse for ignorance," he said.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

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Suu Kyi selected to remain Myanmar opposition head

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Aung San Suu Kyi was selected Sunday to remain head of Myanmar's main opposition party, keeping her leadership post even as the party undergoes a makeover to adjust to the country's new democratic framework.

The Nobel laureate was elected chairwoman of the National League for Democracy's new executive board on the final day of a landmark three-day party congress attended by 894 delegates from around the country.

The congress also expanded the group's Central Executive Committee from seven members to 15, in a revitalization and reform effort ahead of Myanmar's 2015 general election. The party is seeking to infuse its ranks with new faces, expertise and diversity without sidelining long-standing members.

"We have to see how effectively and efficiently the new leaders can perform their duties," said Suu Kyi, who has led the NLD since its inception in 1988. "We hope they will learn through experience."

Suu Kyi is the sole holdover from the party's original executive board when it was founded, but the other new members are also mostly long-serving party loyalists. A broader Central Committee of 120 members was elected by the delegates and endorsed the executive board, which was given five reserve members.

The party, which came into being as the army was crushing a mass pro-democracy uprising in 1988, won a 1990 general election that was nullified by the then-ruling military. The NLD boycotted a 2010 general election, but after a military-backed elected government took office in 2011 and instituted democratic reforms, it contested by-elections in 2012, winning 43 of 44 seats and putting Suu Kyi into parliament.

Emerging from repression that limited its actions — not least because Suu Kyi and other senior NLD members spent years under detention — Suu Kyi vowed in her opening speech Saturday to inject the party with "new blood" and decentralize decision-making.

She said the NLD would go through an experimental stage with the new leadership and should anticipate some obstacles but "not be discouraged."

Although the 2012 by-election results showed that the NLD still has broad and deep appeal, the party faces challenges.

The army-backed ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party of President Thein Sein, besides being well-financed and enjoying the benefits of controlling the bureaucracy, has staked out a position as reformist.

It can boast of freeing the press, releasing most of the country's political prisoners and convincing foreign nations to lift most economic sanctions they had imposed against the former military regime for its poor human rights record. It hopes that opening up Myanmar, also known as Burma, to foreign investment will kick-start a moribund economy and win it popular appeal.

On the other side of the political spectrum, the NLD's agreement to play by parliamentary rules — in effect endorsing Thein Sein's reform efforts — leaves an opening for more hard-core anti-military activists to win over a share of disaffected voters who prefer a quicker pace of change than now allowed under the army-dictated constitution.

Speaking to the party meeting after her selection as chairman on Sunday, Suu Kyi said that in choosing executive board members there was an effort to include women, members of ethnic minorities and younger people, in addition to members with a record of continuous party service. Four women and several ethnic minority members are on the new board.

Suu Kyi acknowledged to reporters that younger members were underrepresented on the Central Executive Committee compared to the bigger Central Committee.

"We need experienced members who know the policies, tradition and history of the party and who had been in the party for the last 25 years," said Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize while under house arrest. "After some time, the younger generation will take over their place. There should be connectivity between the past, present and future."

Suu Kyi's colleagues expressed satisfaction with the meeting's results.

"The new CEC and Central Committee members will enjoy the trust of the majority because we are elected democratically. I believe we will be able to carry out our work more effectively," May Win Myint, a veteran NLD member jailed many times for her activities, said after being elected to the executive board.

Kyi Phyu Shin, a well-known film director who became an NLD member six months ago and was elected to the Central Committee, said she was "very confident that the NLD will become a tight organization, very active and competitive. The congress helps institute better democratic practices in the NLD."

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